Electrical wiring skills are taught in many secondary schools around the world, both for career preparation as well as part of home maintenance skill development. There are many challenges with teaching this hands on skill to students (whether youth or other electrical novices), including a specialized knowledgebase, physical dangers involving commonly used AC voltages, difficulty in safely energizing student wiring projects for testing and assessment, and the amount of valuable class time consumed by evaluating student wiring projects.
Many simple wiring tasks do not require in depth understanding of the engineering principles that make the power grid, residential distribution systems, and how appliances work. However, even simple tasks require practical skills such as stripping wire, differentiating between hot, neutral, and ground wires, and troubleshooting.
Working with electricity can be dangerous, especially among novices. Novice electricians are prone to mistakes such as shorts, opens, and incorrectly wired switches, outlets, and sockets that can lead to arcing, high current draws, improper grounds, and other safety hazards. Safety concerns have led to many high school level programs discontinuing their electrical wiring training programs or failing to offer this training in the first place.
A further challenge with regards to electrical wiring training is the assessment process. Energizing a student wiring project safely requires a sound understanding of electricity and circuit protection devices. Improper powering of student projects could result in injury or tripping of school circuit breakers affecting other students and classes. Instructors also need to assess the correctness of the wiring. This is typically done by visually inspecting all of the wires and connections within the circuit, which can take a significant amount of time when multiplied by a large class size. Instructors may try to rely on off-the-shelf outlet testers. However, these tools only provide limited feedback on a fraction of the potential faults in an outlet circuit, and corresponding light socket testers do not exist.
Accordingly, a substantial need exists for a training and education system and method for safely and efficiently testing and assessing electrical wiring skills.